Originally published at: Roller coaster malfunction forces riders to descend by foot from 213-foot peak | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
no ride up. no walk down. no thank you.
11 Likes
Meh. Sydney Harbour Bridge was scarier. That’s got wee ladders that come up between the train tracks.
5 Likes
As a coaster fan, I’d pay (and have paid!) good money to climb that hill. It’s not like there wasn’t a handrail.
11 Likes
Yikes. I’ll try to remember to bring my safety harness and y-lanyard if I ever decide to visit that amusement park.
10 Likes
Yeah… I’d want to be tethered to that handrail. As someone with a fear of edges you’d be lucky to even get me to move without my legs completely failing.
9 Likes
I got sweaty hands just from that short few seconds of video. It would be pretty much impossible to convince me to go on it, and if by some miracle someone did, it would DEFINITELY be impossible to get me to do anything but squeeze my eyes shut and wait for them to fix the ride rather than try to exit and walk down those steps with my vertigo kicking in.
The only coasters I can really tolerate are the ones with the full harness/seat that comes down over your shoulders (Great Bear at Hershey Park). I feel secure in those and it doesn’t trigger the world spinning loops over my head.
5 Likes
Hard pass on that.
3 Likes
The scariest part of that video to me is all those people in close proximity, unmasked or incorrectly masked.
Still a pandemic, folks. Stay the fuck home.
14 Likes
The part that triggers me is how freaking slowly they are shuffling down those steps.
Don’t get me wrong, I would stick with the group at their preferred speed and be supportive if I was in that situation. Being scared of heights must really suck and some passengers might have mobility issues.
On the other hand, if I was by myself then I would set my own pace and enjoy the hike
2 Likes
Seconded. Even that short clip has me shaking and dizzy. Ack.
3 Likes
Could be worse. Imagine being stuck at the apex of a vertical loop.
3 Likes
I don’t really care for roller coasters, but as long as there was a handrail, very few worries. I lived in one of the suburbs around Honolulu which climb the sides of the Koolau mountain range. I walked down from almost the very top daily for exercise and caught the bus to work at the bottom, but only walked up once, which took me nearly 2 hours (whew!)
2 Likes
Meh, walking down stairs is nothing.
Seeing two rollbacks in a row (where the coaster doesn’t make it over the hill and rolls backward into the station at full speed) on the Top Thrill Dragster (420 feet, 90 degree vertical) at Cedar Point is something else entirely. Those people were certainly affected, although thrilled may not be the best description.
2 Likes
I know of only one coaster that has a vertical loop and mere lapbars/seatbelts for restraint. It’s the first looping coaster I ever rode and it is still in operation. If it ever got stuck, everyone would probably fall out.
1 Like
I started to think that getting stuck at the top of a loop would somehow defy the laws of physics, but then I realized that I was overthinking things.
I love roller coasters. I hate heights. I couldn’t watch the video, because it is one of my absolute worst (real*) fears. I can imagine having to weigh the fright of staying up at the top versus walking down that rickety ladder.
/*Bridges don’t generally crumble into the abyss just because I step on them, but my brain thinks it will happen. Every time.
3 Likes
The wind up at the top of that in Blackpool would be horrible too.
Millennium Force at Cedar Point, which is far and away the absolute best coaster I’ve ever ridden, offers a different experience. The “cars” are short, ankle-depth slabs, with stadium-like seats bolted on top of them. A T-bar and lap belt are all you get, so there’s nothing to obstruct your view in every direction, including down. You can’t duck and pretend like you can’t see out.
The ride to the top of the first hill is fast and smooth, without the slow clankety-clack-clack that other coasters have. And the cable mechanism is designed to drive you right over the peak to the 80 degree drop, so you stare almost straight down as you plummet 310 feet.
We did almost nothing else at the park except circle back and get in line again. I totally understood junkies after that. That was pure excitement they poured into my veins, and I wanted more. Still do, after 20 years.
5 Likes
Do you know what’s worse than vertical video? Vertical video with those stupid zoomed-and-blurred bits on the side. Gah.
4 Likes
